Αντώνης ο Μέγας, quality, not quantity...

My friend and everybodys friend, Andonis, or Andonis the Great, lives a life that drills deeply inside of me. I see him in the morning after an occasional coffee at Taverna Alonia, with many of the farmers around, where they relax and talk about nothing but the heat, (in the summer that is) and all of a sudden one leaves, but seldom is there anyone who says "bibi". They simply leave, for a long day's work in the sizzling heat of the day. Andonis takes his huge, blue tractor, drives a Formula 1 lap and disappears up in to the forest and on uphill, on the dusty and curvy roads, to sandy and rocky fields with bushes, where all his sheep are. I met him on my motorbike one day up there on one of my rather wild excursions in the silence of the forest and hills and creeks. "Welcome, my friend. It will be hot day, Torsten, and I do not know what you are doing up here, nothing here but a very hot today, I think around 45. Very hot. Very, very hot".
I smiled, because he looked like he just came out of the shower and I felt like a dustbin. No deo in the world would have helped! - At night he sometimes gets back to the taverna for an ouzo and always with a happy smile. What is life quality?
His age? Well, around 85 and he complains a bit about his knees, it hurts more when he sits down than when he stands up...that is all, the rest are smiles to everyone. I know him and I do not really know him, but he gives me new dimensions on my own every-day life and valuations. What a contact in energies=emotions! It might sound a bit pathetic, but I look at him as the symbol for the strength and vitality that this island radiates...